Herein the term fluid indicates a material other than a gas which is capable of flowing without retaining its physical shape and accordingly excludes firm solids which retain their shape when subjected to mild pressure. The term includes liquids or creams which may be aqueous or anhydrous and flowable particulate solids. In particular, the present invention is directed to dispensers of a liquid of low viscosity.
One class of dispensers for cosmetic, including deodorants and/or antiperspirants is commonly called roll-ons. Such dispensers comprise a bottle that acts as a reservoir for a cosmetic fluid, a fluid dispensing outlet integral with or mounted on the bottle comprising a housing within which a roller, commonly a ball and preferably a spherical ball, is rotatable, and a cap mountable over the outlet.
In order to offer additional styling options for the dispenser, and if desired also to incorporate features within the housing that would render it more difficult to mould an integral bottle and housing, it can sometimes be convenient to make the housing separately from the bottle, but in such circumstances, the housing requires a suitable means for mounting on the bottle securely so that the two elements do not separate when the dispenser is used. The cap commonly has a cylindrical skirt which extends over an external cylindrical exterior face of the housing and is mountable on the bottle by rotation about an axis common to both the cap skirt and the cylindrical housing. When the cap is being either attached to or removed from the bottle, it imparts a turning force, so that if the point of attachment of the cap is on the housing rather than directly to the bottle, there is a risk of the housing being taken out of alignment with the bottle and in consequence impairing its styling, or even separating from the bottle. The force needed to twist the cap can be greater if, for example, contents of the bottle have spilled onto the twisting elements, e.g. co-operating screw threads, and dried. Furthermore, even if a means is introduced to prevent relative rotation of housing and bottle, the further risk can remain of the housing separating from the bottle (colloquially, popping off) as a result of rotation-induced deformation thereby risking spilling the contents of the dispenser and particularly if the bottle and housing are both moulded from thermoplastic materials.
Although the likelihood of a housing separating from a bottle is recognisable when the mounting is directly onto the housing itself, a risk can also be contemplated if there is a significant turning force applied to the bottle that is in the vicinity of the mounting of housing on bottle.
Although these are problems that are immediately apparent for dispensers of fluids, they can be seen to apply to related dispensers which likewise employ a flow-regulating outlet which is mounted on a cosmetic container that is closed by a cap that is applied or removed by rotation.
It is an object of the present invention to ameliorate or eliminate one or more of the problems with cosmetic dispensers described hereinbefore.
It is a further object of some embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved or modified roll-on dispenser for cosmetic fluids.